Department of Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures

SL 249 Gender and War in Eastern Europe, 2013, Page 1

Boston College

Department of Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures

SLAV 2067/HIST 2284GENDER AND WAR IN EASTERN EUROPE

Spring 2015Prof. Cynthia Simmons

T/Th 1:30-2:45; Devlin 117Lyons Hall 210, x23914

Office Hours: T/Th 3-4 & by

A study of the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and ideology in the Russian Revolution, the World Wars in Eastern Europe, the Soviet wars in Afghanistan, and the recent Yugoslav wars. The twentieth century witnessed revolutionary changes in women’s roles in warfare. And the consideration of gender issues with respect to war has led to a reconsideration of “masculinity” in war and the gender-specific experiences of male combatants.

In World War I, women confronted their duties to nation against the backdrop of an on-going struggle for equality. Men who fought for the Austro-Hungarian Empire returned home, defeated, to new countries that often did not recognize their service or meet the needs of veterans (a neglect suffered also by Soviet soldiers returning from Afghanistan thirty-five years later). In World War II, women in communist Eastern Europe, in the Soviet Union and among the Partisans in Yugoslavia,were liberated by their ideology to fight, against tradition, on all fronts. Yet, by the time of the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan in 1979, the attitude toward women in the military reflected more the pre-Communist Russian tradition.More recently in former Yugoslavia, women, particularly Bosnian Muslim women, flouted tradition in a different way—by organizing and fighting for peace.

Required Reading

Anonymous, A Woman in Berlin (Picador)

Maria Bochkareva, Yashka, My Life as a Peasant, Exile, and Soldier (on Canvas)

Joseph Rothschild and Nancy M. Wingfield, Return to Diversity: A Political History of East-Central Europe Since World War II (Oxford University Press)

Simmons and Perlina, Writing the Siege of Leningrad (University of Pittsburgh Press; excerpts on Canvas)

Additional materials available to be downloaded through Canvas.

There will be an early short paper (3-4 pp.), a mid-term paper (8-10 pp.), and a final. The final grade will depend on performance in the following areas: class preparation and participation, including a group presentation (25%), short paper (15%), mid-term paper (8-10 pp.; 30%), and final exam (30%). Attendance is mandatory and will be considered one aspect of class preparation.

Final Exam: Friday, May 8, 9:00 a.m.

(MAKE TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS ACCORDINGLY)

Academic Integrity

(See:

Academic integrity is violated by any dishonest act which is committed in an academic context including, but not restricted to the following:

Cheating is the fraudulent or dishonest presentation of work……..

Plagiarism is the act of taking the words, ideas, data, illustrations, or statements of another person or source and presenting them as one’s own.

Collusion is defined as assistance or an attempt to assist another student in an act of academic dishonesty.

Disability Statement

Boston College is committed to providing reasonable accommodations and integrated access for students with disabilities to all available academic, social, and recreational programs and activities. Appropriate support and referral services are provided by the Disability Services Office, which serves students with hearing, visual, mobility, medical, and psychiatric disabilities. If you are a student with a documented disability seeking reasonable accommodations in this course, please contact Kathy Duggan, (617) 552-8093, , at the Connors Family Learning Center regarding learning disabilities and ADHD, or Paulette Durrett, (617) 552-3470, , in the Disability Services Office regarding all other types of disabilities, including temporary disabilities. Advance notice and appropriate documentation are required for accommodations.

13 JanuaryPreliminaries

15 JanuaryIntroductory lecture, theoretical issues; the Russian Revolution

20 JanuaryLines of Fire, pp. 1-41(on Canvas)

22 JanuaryYashka (Maria Bochkareva); on Canvas, Part II (War), pp. 69-134;

27 JanuaryRachamimov, “Female Generals…” pp. 23-46; Healy, “Civilizing the

Soldier…”, pp. 47-69, in Wingfield and Bucur, Gender and War in 20th-

Century Eastern Europe(on Canvas)

29 JanuaryFilm, Commissar

3 FebruaryFilm, cont.; Ablovatski, “Between Red Army and White Guard…” pp. 70-92 (on Canvas); Topic distributed for short paper due February 10

5 FebruaryBokovoy, “Kosovo Maiden(s)…” pp. 157-170 (on Canvas); Return to Diversity, “The Interwar Background, pp. 1-17; Intro. to women in the Soviet Union and WWII

10 FebruaryReturn to Diversity, “World War II,” pp. 19-59; Short paper due

12 FebruaryWriting the Siege of Leningrad, Introduction,

pp. 1-18 (on Canvas) and assigned in-class synopses

17 FebruaryWriting the Siege, (assigned in-class synopses)

19 FebruaryFilm, Wings (Kryl’ia)

24 FebruaryFilm, Wings (Kryl’ia); discussion of short papers

26 FebruaryWings concluded; Barbara Alpert Engel, “The Womanly Face of War: Women Remember World War II (Document and questions on Canvas); World War II inYugoslavia, introduction; Questions distributed for Mid-Term Paper, Due March 17

2-6 MarchSpring Break

10 MarchJancar-Webster,Women andRevolution in Yugoslavia (1941-1945)

(Canvas); Yugoslav women in WWII, Chapter 2; Jancar-Webster,

12 MarchJancar-Webster Chapter 3,“The Role of Women in the Army” (Canvas)

17 March“The Nation’s Painand Women’s Shame: Polish Women and Wartime Violence” (Jolluck);questions to consider on Canvas; MIDTERM PAPER DUE

19 MarchReturn to Diversity, “The Communists Come to Power,” pp. 61-99

24 MarchThe Soviet war(s) in Afghanistan; introduction; Ellis, “Russian Women in

Afghanistan” (Canvas)

26 MarchZinky Boys (Canvas), Read the following testimonies: "A Nurse,"

"A Mother," "Civilian Employee," "Sergeant Major, Medical Instructor in

a Reconnaissance Unit," "A Mother" (2), "A Mother" (3), "Civilian

Employee" (2), "A Mother" (4), "Doctor, Bacteriologist," "A Widow," "Civilian Employee" (3), "A Mother" (6) "A Mother" (7) (not reading “Mother” [5])

31 MarchThe Ninth Company (film)

2 April Post-Soviet triumphalism; Return to Diversity, “The Dialectics of Stalinism and Titoism, 101-117

7 AprilEaster Break, no class

9 AprilThe Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, Introduction

14 April Zharkov, “Feminist Self/Ethnic Self Theory and Politics of Women’s

Activisim” (Canvas); Cockburn, The Space Between Us, Chapter 6

(Canvas)

16 AprilFilm, Calling the Ghosts

21 AprilSlapšak, “Yugoslav War: A case of/for Gendered History” (Canvas),

Nikolić-Ristanović, “From Sisterhood to Non-Recognition:

Instrumentalization of Women’s Suffering in the War in the Former

Yugoslavia” (Canvas)

23 AprilUgrešić, The Culture of Lies, “Because We’re Just Boys” (Canvas);

Helms, “Women as Agents of Ethnic Reconciliation? Women’s NGOs and

International Intervention in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina” (Canvas);

Mertus, “Women’s Participation in …ICTY” (Canvas)

28AprilTeam presentations

30 AprilTeam presentations